Museum Square, the oldest in Saratov, is the historical center and the site of the founding of the modern city. It is here that the city was moved from the left bank of the Volga, and its center began to form. The square housed trading rows known as the Gostiny Dvor, which gave the square its name. In 1689, the Trinity Cathedral was laid in the center of the square, which has survived to this day and is the oldest building in the city. In 1695, Peter the Great visited the cathedral. Later, the square was named Cathedral Square, and after the construction of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, it became known as Old Cathedral Square.

Over time, an architectural ensemble formed around the square, which is now considered an architectural gem of Saratov. Here are the building of the Ryazan-Ural Railway Administration, the Peskovsky mansion, the spiritual seminary, the house of the first Saratov local historian A.F. Leopoldov, the house of the Kazan Church clergy, the mansion of merchant A.V. Chirikhina, the city school, the house of the first bookseller Vakurov, and the Ustinov mansion, now the Saratov Regional Museum of Local Lore. In 1931, the square was named Museum Square, likely due to its museum significance thanks to the preserved architectural monuments.

The compositional center of Museum Square is the Trinity Cathedral, built at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries in the Moscow Baroque style. The perimeter of the square is formed by buildings in the classicism style of the late 18th and the first quarter of the 19th centuries, as well as large administrative buildings from the early 20th century. The backdrop is created by structures from the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as the Kornilov mansion. The historical significance of the complex is determined by its location in the oldest part of the city and its connection to important events in the history of Saratov.